Current Projects

Below you will find photos taken from Ecosphere's current restoration project(s).

Ulele Springs

Ulele Springsis a natural
spring complex located in the heart of downtown Tampa.Formerly known as Magbee Springs, the name
was changed in 2006, to Ulele Springs, in honor of the fabled Indian woman who
cared for a stranded Spanish sailor.The
spring run, which historically flowed directly into the Hillsborough River, had
been filled in and now the spring flows through a concrete pipe.

In 1907, the
City of Tampa built a pumping station at Ulele Spring, near the banks of the
Hillsborough River. In 1910 the Tampa
Streetcar Company built the hub of Tampa’s streetcar system and this beautiful
stretch of river quickly filled in with heavy industrial uses. A fish processing plant, a shipyard, a
dredging operation and the City of Tampa’s Police Station and Maintenance
Facility ultimately choked off access to the Hillsborough River for the
surrounding neighborhoods and filled in the natural spring run.

The primary project objective is to remove the existing pipe and re-create a meandering stream system along with the associated wetland community down the Hillsborough River. In addition, the spring boil area will be expanded by the remove of a portion of the concrete wall coupled with excavation of the banks to expand the wetland community, this newly restored wetland area will be planted with native wetland vegetation. In spite of these anthropogenic activities, the spring boil area is very healthy, with continuous flows of crystal clear water, which support native vegetation including ell grass which is rare within the Hillsborough River.These activitieswill allow fish to seek refuge in the spring run, provide wetland (estuarine habitat, specifically oligohaline environs) within the urban core of the city, and provides a unique area for the citizens to enjoy as well as providing educational opportunities. In addition, this portion of the Hillsborough River has been completely hardened with seawalls, so a "Living Shoreline" component is also included as part of the restoration of this site, which will provide the only location with native wetland vegetation. Finally, the continuous source of freshwater (75 degrees year round) will provide critical refuge for fish and even manatees as they currently use the river’s upstream springs as wintering areas.

The Ulele Springs flows freely once again after restoration - Click Here.

Newman Branch Phase II - Expansion

This
site is already functioning as designed and we have documented over 32 species
of fish utilizing the estuarine areas and numerous T&E birds accessing the
freshwater ponds. This letter of intent
is requesting additional funds to expand the project area to restore critical
saltern and mangrove communities to an area immediately adjacent to the
original (Phase II) project limits (Figure 1) along Newman Branch Creek. The primary project funding entity, the Gulf
of Mexico Foundation (GMF) offer to increase their funding by an additional
$60,000 if Ecosphere could expand the restoration efforts at the site.

Salterns
are critically imperiled habitats and are important ecotones for functioning
estuarine systems. Historically the
project area had an extensive band of saltern habitat along the upper
elevations of the mangrove community (Figure 2). However, in the late 1960s, numerous mosquito
ditches were dug through the mangroves to drain the area and “improve” access
for allow fish larvae, with the intent of reducing the mosquito
populations. These actions completely
altered the natural tidal flows and destroyed the saltern communities and negatively
affected the mangroves. We are proposing
to restore the natural tidal influences to this area to restore these critical
habitats. This can be accomplished with an
innovative technique called hydro-blasting, which consists of using highly
pressurized water to remove the spoil material and use this material to strategically
block the man-made ditches. This
technique achieves two distinct objectives: removal of the spoil mounds (which
currently harbor non-native vegetation such as Brazilian pepper) and
strategically blocking the ditch flows to allow the high tide to enter the
system while holding back the water to restore the saltern community. Hydro-blasting, although a relatively new
technique, has been successfully been implemented in a number of locations
around Tampa Bay (Cockroach Bay Restoration Project) and has zero long-lasting
impacts to the surrounding wetland communities.

This proposed
project expansion will remove a minimum of 60 spoil mounds from within
the mangrove community, thus restoring this habitat, and will also
strategically block eight (8) ditches to restore the saltern community. This will result in a minimum of five (5)
acres of restored mangroves habitat, restore approximately 19 acres of saltern
community, plus the conversion of the upland spoil mounds into a high marsh
estuarine community. The resultant
mounds will be planted with native vegetation to accelerate the restoration
process.
The
project land owner, and current corporate partner (TECO), has committed $60,000
(land value) to fund this project and the enhanced area (total of 60 acres) will
be placed under a perpetual conservation easement (Figure 3).